"Mongolia is kind of close, right?" Story about an attempt to ski everywhere in the world where there's snow. And in some places where there isn't. On and off-piste skiing on all continents, skiing into craters of live volcanoes, caving, climbing, photography, and travel.

Sunday, August 28, 2016

We had a disturbing visit to a cave today. Somebody had not only blocked access to this cave, but also smeared vaseline all over the cave, spread broken glass, and so on. Sigh.

The Mätikkä cave in Masku, southern Finland, is an interesting cave that begins under a cliff, continues in a system of cracks, and has a number of exits, including one on the top of the cliff. We first learned about this cave from the Retkipaikka article.

We had read about the disturbances, but had not realised how bad they were. The place was not just disturbed with garbage, access was completely blocked, and significant parts of the cave were smeared with vaseline and some other substances (maybe horseshit, or some other brown substance) and broken glass was spread around.

Signs were also posted around the cave, claiming that access is prohibited to protect insects, butterflies and other nature the in the cave. Well, I'm not entirely sure that smearing the cave with vaseline will help the nature a lot.

It would seem to me that it is a crime to spread oil products into nature. And everyman's right grants access to the nature in Finland, so signs and blockage seems to be against that too. The cave also has a potential cave painting, making it crime to disturb such a historic site. See also the note at the geocaching site, I wonder if a police report has been filed about the situation?

Friday, August 26, 2016

As a saunablogger, I had to report that I've been to sauna in a new city: Shenzhen, China. The sauna was in the Pavillion hotel. Not a great sauna, but I'm glad I went anyway. Turning on the temp setting made the experience better.

And I'm also glad I didn't push the white buttons in the sauna, as the watering system *did* work automatically, not by button press. The buttons were for alarms...

I've been accidentally flying the Finnair A350 on short routes, without knowing I'd be on it and expecting the usual A320s. But this week I was on the A350 for the first time on long-haul flight, Helsinki-Hong Kong-Helsinki.

I was on business class. My company uses the cheapest possible tickets, but I had some points that I could use to upgrade. This made it possible for me to sleep well. And work the next day.

Overall experience was quite positive: plane was on time and no major problems, feels very modern and high tech, very quiet. I particularly like the lights, the cabin colour scheme.

The entertainment system was easy to use, fast, and had a good large screen.

But I also had a few gripes:

The seatbelt airbag is fairly bulky on your lap.

To be honest, I felt a bit more cramped in the A350 seat than in the A330 seat. Though in the end it was very nice to sleep in both, so maybe that's just the initial feeling from the new herringbone arrangement.

Bathroom lighting was broken or configured differently; it didn't light up to become brighter when the door becomes locked.

Cabin personnel seemed quite busy. It always took a long time for them to visit our aisle so that I could ask for food when I woke up and so on. This might have been affected by the fact that I was on the second cabin compartment, which is shorter than the first business class compartment. The stewardesses were busy serving the larger first compartment.

On my shorter flights seat power was off, though it was unclear if this was actual breakage of if the cabin personnel did not yet have the adequate training to turn it on. It kinda sounded like the latter.

Sunday, August 21, 2016

The Swiss are clever innovators. The latest example of this that I saw were the lift towers in Saas Fee. Floating in mid-air, not standing on ground like regular towers. Anti-gravity in action!

In the summer the ski area closes at noon, so after a nice morning of summer skiing in rain and fog, I was left with a free afternoon. It turns out that that at the top station there's an ice cave. I did not expect much, these tunnels seem present in almost all glacier resorts.

But I was surprised. And maybe a bit shaken. Not just by the beauty of the ice carvings, but also of the spooky nature of the place. Buttons that you are tempted to press but shouldn't, flowers decorations that feel like they're from somebody's funeral, dark chapels with shadowy figures on the walls, and exits that lead nowhere. Nicely done, now I can't sleep!

The chapel:

The flowers:

More from the chapel:

The crevasse:

Colours in the ice cave:

Photo and video credits (c) 2016 by Jari Arkko. This blog is also available in TGR. Tämä blogi löytyy myös suomeksi Relaasta.

Monday, August 15, 2016

It is late May, and Saint-Sauveur is one of the only two open ski areas in the east. And I've already been to the other one, Killington. And what's more, all the ski crazies are here!

It was a long weekend drive to Canada from Boston where my meetings were. But in this case it was worth it. The sun was shining, and the skiing was good.

Two ski runs remained open. The main slope was fully open, and had a nice bumps run on the lower part. In the morning the bumps were suitably small and soft for me, and I was happy to be able to ski the full run through them in one go. That doesn't happen often. By afternoon, the bumps had grown big enough that I no longer was able to ski them. Or maybe my legs were tired.

The other run was "Nordic", one of the side runs. I enjoyed the profile better here than on the main run, particularly the lower part, even if that part was already closed off. You could still ski it down, but you had to walk 50 meters to the lift.

But more important than the specific slopes were the people who were there. For the second weekend in row I met Patrick Corcoran ("Mad Pat Ski") who like me is a skiing nut, traveling around the world and skiing through summers. And not only him, it seemed that on this late May weekend, all the people crazy about skiing gathered here. There weren't more than a couple of dozen skiers on the hill, but they all were dedicated skiers! And they all seemed to know each other.

Saint-Sauveur ended up continuing after this weekend, but we couldn't predict the weather at the time; we all considered our season-ending ski day. When the weather turned into hard rain in the late afternoon, that just inspired people to go to the slope and keep skiing it. It was fun crowd to ski with!

I stayed at Manoir Saint-Sauveur, a nearby resort with spas and saunas. It had been too long without sauna on this trip, so the facilities were much appreciated!

After our day on the slopes, Patrick took me to museum of skiing in Saint-Sauveur, which was also interesting.

Looking forward to meeting these people on some other mountains in the future!

Romantic flamingos in the bar:

Groundhogs observing my grass skiing:

Saint-Sauveur ski area across the lake (photo by Patrick Corcoran):

Ski art at the ski museum:

Bar during the day:

Patrick and Greg:

Patrick and me (photo by Patrick):

One of the crazy skiers, crossing a pond:

Colourful buildings nearby:

View from the hill:

Photos and Videos (c) 2016 by Jari Arkko and Patrick Corcoran. This blog is also available at TGR. Tämä blogi löytyy myös suomeksi Relaasta.

Friday, August 12, 2016

I wanted go far this summer, ski the untried countries. But it was not to be, because work. And because Peru was cancelled.

I had my finger on the button to book tickets, but called first. Unfortunately, the Pastoruri Glacier, located at the Parque Nacional Huascarán at an altitude of five kilometres, is suffering from global warming. They used to have skiing on the glacier, but it is melting so fast that they do everything to try and extend its remaining life. So skiing is no longer allowed.

Oh well. I'm taking a few days off to tour around European summer ski areas, starting with a weekend with Tero at Hintertux, Austria. We've just arrived, and it is raining, but I'm hoping the rain means fresh snow in tomorrow's sunny day!

I can also recommend the Neuhintertux hotel, which among other things provides backpacks for all customers in case they want to go hiking. Nice touch! And now I do want to go hiking, then sauna, so talk to you later!

Photos (c) 2016 by Jari Arkko. This blog is also available at TGR. Tämä blogi löytyy myös suomeksi Relaasta.

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Argentina is too big. It is winter, but getting to the slopes in Las Leñas takes a two-hour flight and four hours of driving. My weekend is too short for that, as I have be back in my meetings in Buenos Aires soon.

But what could I do instead? I'd like to go caving, but the caves are even further away than the slopes. Horseback-riding on the pampas perhaps? But most of the ranches are closed at this time of the year. Canoeing in the Tigre? But I've already done that.

Fortunately, the Atlantic shore south of Buenos Aires is interesting. There are plenty of parks, beaches, forests, and little towns alongside the shore.

So I ended up going to the slopes on the one vehicle that I have not tried yet: an all-terrain vehicle (ATV), a four-wheeled small buggy. There are some sand dunes in the seashore area, not too many but enough to try out some skiing. My miniskis are again in action, feeling at home on the sandy slopes. With enough steepness, the small skis slide better than long ones, turn better, and are easy to carry.